The month of August 1983 as delivered by the UK record-buying public.
Chart dates 31st July – 6 August 1983
Nope. There’s nothing new in the Top 40 worth featuring, while all those that are half-decent that have been in the charts for a few weeks were mentioned either last month or back in June.
A 7″ I did buy back in the day did enter the charts at #48, and eventually made its way up to #15 in mid-September.
mp3: Carmel – Bad Day
A jazz/soul group whose name was taken from that of the lead singer, Carmel McCourt. The other two members were Jim Paris and Gerry Darby. This was the lead single from their second album, The Drum Is Everything, but their first for a major label, in this instance London Records. It was produced by Mike Thorne, who at the time was one of the most-sight after in his profession, thanks to his success with Soft Cell, The The and Bronski Beat, among others. It’s well seeing I was being influenced by The Style Council at this juncture in my life.
Chart dates 7th August – 13th August 1983
At long last, after a combined six weeks of sitting at the top of the charts, Rod Stewart and Paul Young were finally displaced by KC and The Sunshine Band. Sadly, it wasn’ttty quite the way (ah-huh, ah-huh) I liked it, as the song was the rather bland and dull Give It Up.
Weller and Talbot came to the rescue:-
mp3 : The Style Council – Long Hot Summer (#8)
I’ve said enough over the years about this particular song. It was, and remains after 40 years, a real favourite. It’s certainly stood the test of time. It would, over the course of the remainder of the month, reach #3 and in doing so, be the best-performing song, chart-wise, for TSC.
I’m off to Dusseldorf with a mate very soon for a weekend, during which we will take in a couple of matches. He’s not big into his music, but I’m sure even he’s heard of that city’s greatest and best known exports:-
mp3: Kraftwerk – Tour de France (#31)
It eventually manoeuvred its way up to #22.
Chart dates 14th – 20th August
mp3: Madness – Wings Of A Dove (#19)
The 15th time that Madness entered the singles chart. This time, they threw in some steel drums and the vocal talents of The Inspirational Choir of the Pentecostal First Born Church of the Living God, who had been runners-up in a talent show organised by Channel 4, but whose performances led to Madness asking them to do the additional/backing vocals on a newly written song that was intended for release as a single. What did surprise me is that Wings Of A Dove was Madness’s second-best ever performing 45, reaching #2, bettered only by their sole #1, House of Fun.
mp3 : The Kinks – Come Dancing (#29)
The Kinks hadn’t enjoyed a hit single in 11 years, and the success of Come Dancing was a bolt from the blue. It had actually been released, to complete indifference, in late 1982 but to almost everyone’s surprise, it found favour with the American audiences, reaching#6 on its release in April 1983. The UK record label quickly made plans to have a second go with things over here, and in due course it would reach #12. It proved to be the 17th and last time the band would reach the Top 20 in their homeland.
Chart dates 21st – 27th August 1983
As with the opening week of this month, nothing new came into the Top 40 to provide any excitement. Digging deep down, I found this:-
mp3 : The Glove – Like An Animal (#52)
This was actually a rise of one place from its entry into the Top 75 at #53 the previous week.
The Glove was a side project involving Steve Severin (Banshees) and Robert Smith (The Cure). A clause in his contract seemingly prohibited Smith singing with another band, which is why Jeanette Landray, a former girlfriend of Severin’s bandmate Budgie, was recruited as the lead singer.
May 2019 was the only time The Glove previously featured on the blog. It came from a great discussion via the comments section involving Martin (Sweden) and Dirk (Germany) about the merits of this single.
Martin
I must point out that the B-side of the first single by The Glove (Like an animal) is one of the best pop songs ever recorded by RS, Mouth To Mouth.
Note I post this as a fact.
Dirk
Even better than the A-Side, Martin? Must listen to it once I get home … and if it ever comes to an ICA, ‘Like An Animal’ M.U.S.T. be included … at least as far as I’m concerned …
Martin
Dirk – In my eyes, yes without a doubt! And it has Robert singing as if I remember correctly he could for contractual reasons not do the lead vocals on any of the singles. Like an animal has Landray on vocals.
So… the contractual issue wasn’t he couldn’t sing lead vocals – he just couldn’t do it on any singles. Here’s your b-side
mp3: The Glove – Mouth To Mouth
I’ll be back again with more of the same in four or so weeks.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Carmel – should, on paper, be band that I would stay well clear of. However, the opposite was true. I was quite the fan of Bad Day and The Drum Is Everything – even going so far as to by the latter. I played it regularly. I’ll not go through each track indivually but, from recollection, there wasn’t a filler track on it? I suppose it was a phase – as around that time I also really enjoyed Swans Way, Allez Alez etc.
I’d never heard of Like An Animal or Mouth to Mouth till today. Still, I have heard of the Glove, from back in the day, so that’s not too bad, eh? These are two tracks that really do sound of their time but in a very good way. If only there was time n the world to listen to everything.
Flimflamfan
Ah, Allez Allez! I picked up the African Queen EP based on a review, and really liked it. Got the album as well, the VAlley Of The Kings was a very “Fellowship of the Ring” sounding track in my ears at the time.
Should we throw in Blue Rondo A La Turk in the bucket too, maybe? 🙂
martin (who still thinks Mouth To Mouth is a brilliant song)
I had wings of a Dove and come dancing on 7 inch when I was a lad. Wings of A Dove had a plain white sleeve if I remember rightly. Great songs. Swc.
Thanks for The Glove!! and many greetings from Düsseldorf.
Love your blog for years now!
Anni